Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has been killed in Israeli-US attacks, according to Israeli media reports and a senior Israeli official.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu claimed there were “growing signs” that Khamenei was killed in the joint US-Israeli strikes, which were launched early on Saturday.
The Reuters news agency, citing an unnamed senior Israeli official, reported that Khamenei’s body has been located.
But Iran’s Tasnim and Mehr news agencies reported that Khamenei remained “steadfast and firm in commanding the field”.
In what appeared to be a response to the claims, the head of public relations at Khamenei’s office accused the country’s enemies of “mental warfare”.
“The enemy is resorting to mental warfare; all should be aware,” the public relations official was quoted as saying by Iranian state media.
Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Tohid Asadi said there has so far been no official confirmation of Khamenei’s killing from Tehran.
He noted that Iranian Minister of Foreign Affairs Abbas Araghchi told NBC News earlier that, “as far as I know”, Iran’s supreme leader, as well as other top Iranian officials, remained in good health.
US President Donald Trump told NBC News in an interview that he believed reports of Khamenei’s death were a “correct story”.
Saturday’s strikes on Iran targeted 24 provinces, killing at least 201 people, according to Iranian media reports, citing the Red Crescent.
Iran responded with a wave of counterattacks, targeting Israel and US military assets across the Middle East.
Netanyahu said in his address that many “senior figures” had been “eliminated” in the wave of attacks targeting senior leaders, as Trump called for the government to be toppled.
Israel, he said, had killed “commanders in the Revolutionary Guard and senior officials in the nuclear programme. And we will continue,” he said.
More to come…
Al Jazeera
